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CONSTRUCTION WORLD
JUNE
2017
12
MARKETPLACE
Services offered by Scania South Africa depends on the
customer as it is acutely customer solution focused. “It depends
on the solution the customer needs – it can range from a
maintenance contract to a full repair and
maintenance contract,” says Theunes van der
Westhuizen, General Manager: Retail.
“In addition to servicing or repairs at service
centres, we are able to do on-site servicing using
the customer’s facility, but our own technicians, or
we can use our technicians with the customer’s
technicians. The overriding consideration for Scania’s
repair processes, is whether it will add value (uptime
– which is a key aspect for Scania) for the customer,”
he says.
A centralised division
The repair and maintenance division, or contracts
division, is centralised – whether vehicles operate in
South or Southern Africa. It is based at the Scania
head office in Aeroton, south of Johannesburg. “Any
contract, any management of this contract, any
cost coming via this contract, is managed by this
centralised division,” explains Van der Westhuizen.
When a breakdown happens, rather than the
operator trying to negotiate directly with the local dealer, this is
done centrally by this division. “A work order bill is opened by the
workshop, it is ascertained whether the vehicle is under contract, ex-
clusion and inclusions are checked for, and a job card is opened. The
system does certain vetting of the type of repairs to determine if they
are within the contract conditions. If there are rejections, we have a
team to ensure that this is 100% correct,” says Van der Westhuizen of
the initial process. “Because the repair and maintenance programme
is broken down into main groups, we can specify what the vehicle is
covered for.”
The team
The same team that handles the repair and maintenance contracts,
also handles the processing of warranty claims. “This makes the
process more efficient as the process is not disjointed,” maintains
Van der Weshuizen.
“The availability of parts is one of the key elements of our offering.
We have 95% parts availability from the distributor warehouse in
Nasrec, Johannesburg. We are proud of the logistical setup that we
have. Any part that is available in the country will be dispatched to
the customer within hours. If a part is not available in the country, it
will be air freighted to South Africa,” says Van der Westhuizen.
Marrying breakdowns with information
Technology allows for the monitoring of the vital statistics of
vehicles, remotely communicating this data to a central fleet
management system.
“We have two packages for Scania Fleet Management products:
a
monitoring
and
control
package. The monitoring package (an on-
board control unit) is standard on all vehicles and comes at no addi-
tional cost. It provides basic key data on indicators
such as kilometres driven, fuel usage, harsh braking,
periods of idling and driver performance.
With the control package, customers get full
fleet management. They can track and monitor their
fleet from any computer or mobile device and get
detailed information about vital aspects of vehicle
operation. Importantly, it can provide insight into
driver behaviour and other important aspects that
impact cost and performance.
Scania Assistance Software is linked to the Sca-
nia dealer system. “When a customer phones the
dedicated Scania call centre and provides the chas-
sis or registration number, we can tell whether the
vehicle is still under warranty and has a repair and
maintenance contract. The system sends a signal
to the vehicle to retrieve its last known location as
well as any warning lamps or fault codes appearing
on the instrument cluster. This is channelled back
into the assistance software. The entire process
from when the breakdown is logged, a technician is
dispatched, when he arrives, and what is wrong with the vehicle, is
captured. Response time can me measured as far as breakdowns are
concerned – as it is important to get the vehicle back on the road as
quickly and efficiently as possible,” says Van der Westhuizen.
Breakdown services
When a breakdown is logged, Scania will determine – depending
on what type of breakdown it is and if it can be repaired, or whether
it must be towed to the nearest workshop. “Everything is done to
ensure that we use the most effective way to get the vehicle back on
the road as swiftly as possible.
“When a breakdown is logged and given that it has our fleet
management product, the system automatically requests the fault
codes. This gives technical experts a clearer picture of what may be
wrong when they reach the breakdown site. It is obviously better to
solve the problem first time around if the repair allows it,” Van der
Westhuizen concludes.
Getting vehicles
BACK ON THE ROAD, FAST
For Scania, repair and maintenance is an integral
part of a productive relationship with the customer
and it aims to take over the logistics of such a
repair process to enable the customer to get on
with running their business. This is good news for
construction contractors whose vehicles often work
remotely and in challenging conditions.
LEFT:
Theunes van der
Westhuizen, Scania South
Africa’s General Manager:
Retail says that the main
aim of Scania’s repair and
maintenance offering is to get
the vehicle back on the road as
fast as possible as uptime is
key.
RIGHT:
An example of a
monitoring report.